Tocqueville had a very good prediction of the future of Native American civilization in North America. One comment about the Natives that stood out to me was that he said their two choices were to join civilization with the Europeans, or be wiped out. He had seen firsthand many of the tribes that were wiped out, and based on his choice in language he did not seem to be happy about it. This was odd to me considering most Europeans at the time did not seem to be empathetic to the Natives who they were kicking out of their homes and killing. This chapter especially gave me a little more respect for Tocqueville because he expressed genuine concern for the dismissiveness that the Europeans gave to the Native Americans.
The way that Tocqueville mentions that the Native Americans may have been able to avoid what was essentially genocide by joining the Anglo-American civilization makes me wonder how our society would be today had that happened. Since Native Americans had (and to the ones who are still here today still have) such a unique social structure, which varied greatly between tribes, it would have been an interesting transition to form a society that united such different cultures. Considering how important certain ways of life were to the Natives it is possible that there was practically no way for the two groups to merge in harmony, but I’d like to imagine it would have been a more peaceful option than destroying the majority of all Native Americans. Had that happened, our social structure would probably be very different today with essences of Native American communities ingrained in us, some examples being different hierarchical systems or change in war tactics.
Another anecdote that I found to be interesting was the time Tocqueville came across a young white girl being cared after by a Native American woman and an African American woman. The way he described how the young girl clearly had control over the adults solely based on her race was heartbreaking in a way, because it shows how from such a young age children were taught who had the “power”, which I believe continues today with racism, because when people have certain ideas instilled in them since birth it is very hard for them to change those beliefs.